1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a microfluidic valve unit for controlling flow of a fluid through a channel, and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Research is being actively conducted in the microfluidic engineering field on microfluidic devices capable of performing various functions using biochemical fluid such as blood, urine, saliva, sputum, etc., for example, performing a biochemical reaction process on the biochemical fluid and detecting results of the reaction process. A microfluidic device may be a chip type such as a lab-on-a-chip or a disk type such as a lab-on-a-disk. A microchannel for transporting fluid is formed in the microfluidic device and a microfluidic valve unit for controlling the flow of the fluid flowing along the microchannel may be included in the microfluidic device.
However, the microfluidic valve unit requires a large amount of wax for closing the microchannel and/or a large heating device for melting the wax, and thus it is difficult to miniaturize and highly integrate the microfluidic device. Also, a lot of time is required to heat wax to be melted and it is difficult to accurately control a point of time when the microchannel becomes open due to the melting of the wax.